About Me

I'm a fifty-something male, born and raised in Virginia. Finally found my soul mate at the age of forty three after 2 strike outs and some ugly trips to the plate. I love to play golf, pool, the guitar and poker. I've also become a cyclist. I also love to make things out of wood. I'm currently employed as a sales training director for a health care distributor. I have four kids at various stages of life and plenty of good friends. I also have some friendly acquaintances that are part of my life, too. Sometimes, it's funny and sometimes it's sad but it's always entertaining. And I'm very glad to be here enjoying it.
Why this blog? Well, I'm happier with my life than I've been since I was about 8 years old and I'd like to tell others why just in case they decide they'd like to be that happy, too.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Note:
I started this post back in February and dropped it as it was too depressing
and painful to talk about. Now that the national party conventions are about to
take place, I thought it might be interesting to dust this off and post a
little something on the national election. Comments are always welcome but
civil discourse is the only thing that is tolerated by me. Name calling and
bombastic platitudes will not be tolerated and since I have to approve all
comments first, won’t show up. Thanks in advance!

So,
it’s an election year.

I’m
not sure if you’ve noticed. 2016 is an election year. Most years are election
years but this one is a biggie, it’s a Presidential election year. The other
ones are just election years, where minor officials are elected; Representatives
to the US House, Senators (sometimes but at least every 3rd
election), and of course all your local representatives.

Presidential
Election years are so damn big, they last longer than a year. Really. This one
started at least one or two years ago when people (usually those in the media –
TV hosts, newspaper reporters, and the like) began to discuss the upcoming
Presidential Election.

Why
did they start so soon?

Ratings.
Well, actually, money. The ratings are
really only a TV thing but the higher the ratings, the more advertising revenue
can be brought in. For newspapers and magazines, it’s all about selling more of
them. For online media, it’s all about the clicks.

(Can
you imagine trying to explain some of this to one of the founding fathers? How
bizarre would it sound to Thomas Jefferson if you told him that there were
entire entities focused, not on electing a new president, but on speculating
who the potential candidates might be in the next couple of years? And that performing
this “service” produces billions of dollars of business? It also causes
billions more to be spent in a number of different businesses. As forward
thinking as he was, his brain might explode. Frankly, mine swells up thinking
about it.)

As
of this writing, February 2016, there are 2 Democrats and 9 Republicans running
for President down from an initial high water mark of 3 and 17(!) respectively.
I don’t know what the historical numbers look like for potential candidates but
I have to think that GOP number is pretty close to a record.

Can
there really be as many as 20 people at one time, willing to declare in public,
that they think they’re qualified to be President of the US? Or that they even
want to be? I’m amazed at that.

And
it’s not as if they didn’t already have a job. We have current legislators; at
the National level they make over $180,000 a year. At the state level
(governors) they probably make low six figures. Then we have TV commentators,
making around a quarter of million a year. And then there’s The Hair (I can’t
bear to put his name on here) who makes seven figures, acting in the role of
knowing what it’s like to be an average guy. (Sure, an average guy making seven
figures. WTF does that feel like?)

Present
Tense

It’s
July, about five months after I wrote that. National conventions begin next
week with the GOP in Cleveland followed by the Democrats in Philadelphia a
couple of weeks later. Then the fun really begins! Four solid months of TV ads,
social media posts ad nauseum from all of our friends on both sides of the
aisle and, of course, televised debates between the candidates and at least one
between their running mates.

(Kind
of makes me wish we had taken the British method; they just changed their Prime
Minister over the course of a week’s worth of discussions. How terrifically
civil!)

Concerns
– Yep, I’ve got a few

How
did we get here?

This
is the eleventh presidential election in which I’ve had a chance to vote. I
can’t remember two candidates that have me scratching my head like these two.
They both have horrible ratings when it comes to people thinking they’re
qualified for the role of POTUS and their perceived trustworthiness is
dreadful, as well. Seriously, WTF?

In
no particular order……

Hilary
Rodham Clinton has the pedigree to be President having served for eight years
as Senator, four years as Secretary of State and having been First Lady for
eight years. She has a law degree and a ton of experience in the public sector.
She knows the Constitution, how Congress is supposed to work, and has served up
plans to move forward.

Hilary Rodham Clinton

On
the other hand, she has a reputation of acting as if the rules don’t apply to
her (see email issues) and has been lambasted by her detractors for not playing
“by the rules” and failing to act responsibly in her role as Secretary of State
(see Benghazi). There is also a well held belief that Wall Street “owns” her
and “big money” will sway her plans and decisions. (This is America – we do
have the best politicians money can buy.)

At
the same time, Congressional committees, chaired by the opposition, have spent
in excess of $8 million investigating allegations of misconduct in both
instances and coming up empty. (FBI director Comey did say that their
investigation didn’t come up with enough evidence to pursue and indictment. Not
that she was innocent but that there wasn’t enough evidence. It’s a point of
law that I can’t argue as I’m not a lawyer but at a base level it means to me “There’s
nothing to see here, folks, move along.” Others would say, “Where there’s
smoke, there’s fire!”)

Donald Trump

Donald
J. Trump has the pedigree to be President based on his 40 year career as a
business person and executive. He has begun, run, and sold a number of
successful companies and turned the Trump brand into a highly respected name,
typically associated with high quality and commensurately high price. He would
be the first business person to be elected to the office in a long time. (Harry
Truman was a haberdasher just prior to entering politics and was the last one. He
was also the last one without a college education and he served two terms as
POTUS with some distinction.)

On
the other hand, he has a reputation as a serial philanderer (divorced twice and
one of his books talks about how he wooed another woman while he was married to
the first one). He, too, acts as if the rules don’t apply to him (see tax
returns and marriage) and he has a track record of starting litigation when
things don’t go his way (see Trump Golf Club in Scotland).

He
also has a pending criminal investigation for one of his defunct businesses,
Trump University; it’s the subject of numerous lawsuits by former students.
(Investigators say they aren’t going to pursue until after the election. Huh.
Must not be the opposition party.)

He
claims to be unable to be influenced by “big money” because he has so much of
it (Billions!) but is unwilling to provide his income tax returns that would
show his actual worth and income. (He claims he is under an audit and it would
be bad to show it.) A number of financial pundits claim that they don’t see any
way he could be worth as much as $1 billion; Trump has threatened to sue for
defamation.

With
no law degree, Trump seems to struggle a bit with the Constitution and its
value. He has made a number of changes that we intends to institute in his
first 100 days in office if elected, most of which would be against the current
laws of the land. Undeterred by this fact, he continues to spout these ideas
and is frequently pugnacious when it’s called to his attention. (Politifact
recently published findings on everything he’s said in the year he’s been a
candidate and determined that 93% of the time, his claims have been false. I
don’t think he responded.)

Wow,
that’s Some Choice

Yeah,
I know. And we all face it.

I
love to read and I’ve done a lot of reading in the past year about our
candidates and what the next president will be facing after taking office. I’m
really struggling with my choices and may not make it until I make it to the
voting booth. (There are some other candidates that may be on the ballot in
this state and I won’t know until I get in there. One of those may get my
vote.)

Don’t
rely on one source for your reading, either. I read a couple of different
newspapers and a couple of different websites, some that represent the “other
side” of the political spectrum from my own. If watching TV news, I work to get
equal time on those, as well. (Seriously, if you only watch FOX News or MSNBC,
you’re part of the problem. Go see what the other side is saying! None of them
are in the news business anymore, they’re in the ratings business so you need
to see more than one or two.)

Social
Media won’t help, either

This
may be the thing that worries me the most. I have friends in both sides of the
debate. Some are raging right wingers and some are raging left wingers. All of
them enjoy using social media (Facebook) to express their opinions. A tiny
fraction actually form the opinions for themselves, however. The rest really
seem to enjoy posting memes that they see other friends from their side, post.
Unfortunately, very few bother to determine the veracity of the information
contained therein.

Say
what?!

Honest Abe

Despite
Americans’ disbelief in facts (see global warming, GMO foods, flat earth
society, etc) we seem to have no problem agreeing with something that is
completely made up as long as 1) we agree with it and 2) we read it someplace.

The
result is that we end of up talking to ourselves and there is no transfer or
expansion of knowledge or information.

Coincidentally,
any conversation we may have with someone outside our own belief circle, we
only listen in order to respond to the argument instead of listen for
understanding of the other person’s position. In which we might learn
something.

What’s
the answer?

42!
(See Hitchhiker’s guide to the Universe. Sorry, that was just for me and a few
insiders.)

Only
you can determine your answer to the question, who will be our next President?
And that one is only your choice, not necessarily the choice of the nation;
that’s why we vote and it’s important that we all exercise the right to do so.
Don’t wait until the day after the election and start googling the person that
wins. (See Brexit vote.)

My
answer.

I
truly don’t have one, yet. I have issues with both major candidates.

I
was not a fan of the Clintons prior to the family’s first presidency and wasn’t
a fan of it. I felt that WJC demeaned the office by his poor behavior (see
Monica Lewinsky) and some of his policies were misaligned with my values. (And
he still doesn’t get the notion that his actions have consequences, otherwise
why would he visit Loretta Lynch for a private meeting just before
announcements about his wife’s email. I mean damn, talk about dumb!) While HRC has a solid resume, my gut doesn’t
completely trust her. I don’t have facts, only feelings. While that may go
away, right now I’m struggling.

Donald
Trump frightens me. He always seems to shoot from the hip and appears to be
uncoachable, preferring his own counsel rather than having trusted advisers.
His lack of awareness to anything outside of his own interests, do not align
with the job he seeks. He is a narcissist and a demagogue. His “policy”
positions appear to be made up on the spot and are very short on details and,
frequently, understanding.

I’ve been managing, coaching, and training sales
people for a long time; he sounds like the worst of people I’ve known in that
role. His pugnacity tells me his ego would get in his way very quickly. He
claims that he’s going to negotiate with the world and win but when he gets a
hard question from a reporter, he whines that they aren’t treating him fairly. I
find no redeeming qualities in his candidacy, except that he’s big on
“rallying” people.

We
don’t need a bullshit-artist-in-chief.
We also don’t need someone that thinks they are above the rules. I hate
to vote for the least undesirable candidate but it may come down to that. The
next 4 months will be critical in learning all I can to make the best decision.

I
hope all of America will join me in doing the same. After all, we deserve the
best.